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Danny Faulkner, who was the Dallas poster child for the 1980’s real estate rise and fall, has died (sub. req.). Sentenced to 20 years for the Interstate 30 condos fraud, he served less than four years. Danny was released in 1998 because his attorneys argued that he had only a brief time to live due to cancer of the spine.

Megan Shaw is a junior at Washington and Lee University. She is also one of our summer interns. We dispatched her earlier today to check out the first “vertical construction” at Klyde Warren Park. And lo:

A-Musing Construction Report
By Megan Shaw

Other than traffic, the rain didn’t slow much down — especially the construction at Klyde Warren Park.

Today, the first vertical construction at The Park was placed to form the columns of the Muse Family Performance Stage. These steel beams will create the frame for the stage that will serve as a central gathering spot for the park’s concerts and events. The Park will offer many free-of-charge events, as well as provide Booker T. Washington students an outdoor venue to hold class and rehearse. When the stage isn’t in use, it will have tables and chairs available for outdoor dining. John Muse, a Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation board member, made a donation in honor of his family to name the stage.

A bus outfit called Megabus, with which Bradford Pearson of People Newspapers is familiar, is expanding into Texas.

They’re giving away a lot of free seats from Dallas to Austin, Houston, and San Antonio in their first week of operation, and offering $1 fares to many other spots. You can catch a ride with them starting June 19.

And this comes after Dallas-based Greyhound launched its own Greyhound Express bus service between these major Texas cities earlier this year. It also offers $1 fares for advance purchases on some routes and dates.

Man, who needs a car anymore?

Kudos to JCPenney for its Father’s Day ad. The copy reads: “First Pals: What makes Dad so cool? He’s the swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer and hug giver — all rolled into one. Or two.” According to Gawker, the two guys in the ad are “real-life dads Todd Koch and Cooper Smith,” and those are their kids, Mason and Claire. And, as Gawker points out, the ad looks like a response to the failed boycott organized by the anti-gay nutjob group One Million Moms. I like the execution of the ad. I like the copy. And I like its middle-finger attitude to uptight folks everywhere. (Still not likely to get me into a Penney’s, though.)

If you don’t follow Drake and T. Boone on Twitter, then you missed the following exchange:

Drake: The first million is the hardest.

T. Boone: The first billion is a helluva lot harder RT @Drake: The first million is the hardest.

Drake: @boonepickens just stunted on me heavy.

Stereogum provides the trenchant analysis: “[W]hy does oil magnate/Mr. Burns-ian Oklahoma State booster T. Boone Pickens follow Drake on Twitter? What compelled him to one-up Drake in this manner? Has Drake not seen the Social Network? But, at some point, you just have to cast aside your skeptic queries and enjoy the beauty that modern times hath wrought.”

The man does love a good high five. I’ll probably get better at this.

My best friend Pam’s stepbrother is getting married in a couple days, and when I spoke to her this morning she was on her way to the first of two hair and make up tests. For Pam, this is sort of akin to getting bamboo shoots shoved under her fingernails. I told her that sounded like fun, and that I was attending a “work party thing” tonight. She said, “Oh, right, the one where Starf**er is playing. I feel really bad for you.”

As far as we’re concerned, there’s only one place to be tonight. That’s FrontRow Live, of course, in which we all surgically detach from our computers and blow out the Dallas Contemporary for one night only. I’m biased, maybe, a little. But FrontRow is home to the best critics and arts content in town, and tons of folks have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to put together a music bill I’d go see even if I didn’t work here. Headliners include the aforementioned Portland electro-pop act STRFKR (a college favorite–I used to bounce from Little Italy to the Village listening to their cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” while I was on my way to a not-fun class), French musician Onra, and Austin-based DJ Ben Aqua.

And if that doesn’t make the party for you, there will be food trucks, free beer (with your ticket purchase, of course), art installations by Oliver Francis Gallery, some sort of theatrical performance from Upstart Productions, and more. As a final incentive, I’m attending. Now you’re sold, and the price is right–just $15. I paid $15 to see Strfkr at Prophet Bar last time they were in town, and had to buy my own drinks.

Yes. We thought you might. Enter to win a pair of tickets to our 10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas 2012 Nomination Kick-Off Party at the W. Details on ShopTalk.

Mayor Mike Names Committee To Figure Out How to Commemorate 50th Anniversary of JFK Assassination. Because what we don’t do in Dallas is form enough committees or pay enough attention to the JFK assassination. A few more particulars here [paywall, sorry].

NASA Equipment Found. It was headed in a truck from Minnesota to Palestine, but got sidetracked somewhere around here. The whole thing is super vague. The main thing on the truck was a telescope. Is it important? You better believe it! “This is the telescope that’s taking pictures of the sky,” one of the researchers said. “You don’t have a telescope, you’re not taking pictures of the sky.” He followed with, “This is a spoon to eat cereal with. You don’t have a spoon, you’re not eating cereal.”

Brooklyn Nets Lose Lottery Pick. The team needed to land a spot in the top 3 to keep its pick from going to Portland. It didn’t. Why do you care? Well, you might not. But if you’re a Mavs fan, you should, because it keeps the hope alive of getting The Colony native Deron Williams away from the aforementioned Nets. And since that was sort of the point of giving up on a full-fledged title defense, it’s kind of a big deal.

It Rained Again Last Night. Savor it. Promise me.

This is old news made new again, seeing as it’s based on a survey from last year in which visitors to, and residents of, Dallas-Fort Worth rated the area on all manner of qualities.  We didn’t do well.

Now Travel + Leisure has trotted out some of the collected information in a new pageview-magnet slideshow of the Worst-Dressed Cities in America. Anchorage, Alaska, finished at the bottom, according to visitors.  We ranked 30th out of the 35 cities on stylishness (making us the sixth-worst-dressed.) Here’s what the magazine wrote:

Bigger seems to always be better in the Dallas/Fort Worth area; just take one look at the infamously over-the-top JumboTron at the Cowboys Stadium. And when it comes to getting dressed, big hair, conspicuous designer labels, and slick snakeskin boots are the norm. “Less is more” is not a phrase heard round these parts.

So the editors dusted off a bit of copy written in, oh, maybe 1983, swapped out “Ewings of Southfork” with a jab about JerryWorld, and then called it a day. Probably stopped off at the co-op for some organic hummus and fresh kale juice before retiring to their Park Slope brownstones.

Anyway, we need not be hurt by the criticisms of a bunch of snobs in New York City, no sir. We have our self-confidence to protect us. In the same Travel + Leisure survey, we rated ourselves the ninth-best-dressed city.

You might think that when I saw this enormous typo on the current cover of PaperCity, I cackle-laughed and unleashed a torrent of ridicule. Well, you’d be wrong. What I did was, I cackle-laughed and unleashed a torrent of ridicule — and then I got a stomachache. Because I’ve been there. I’ve done that. (Though never on the cover.) And, chances are, because I’ve put up this post, I will do it again. (This time on the cover.) There really are few things worse than getting a publication back from the printer and being confronted with irrefutable proof that you can sometimes fail to do the most basic part of your job. I wrote a 2,000-word profile of a pizzaiolo not long ago in our pages. In the very first sentence, I wrote that he was covered with flower. My stomach hurts just thinking about it.